All is fair in love and marketing war

Women are being wooed like never before as marketing aimed at the fair sex goes from being marginal to mainstream. Women seem to be the latest flavour for marketers what with Super Bowl, in the US, finally addressing its huge women audiences with ads specifically targeted at them.

On home turf, too, we are seeing the beginning of a real trend where women are increasingly becoming a noticeable category for marketers. Though, marketers have always targeted women for conventional categories like FMCG, personal care and consumer durables, of late there has been a change in the way they communicate to women.

“Today women are represented as being more expressive about their emotions, which is a big change in their portrayal in ads. Education and social independence has made a huge impact as it has ensured that women are not just seen as part of the family but more as an individual consumer,” says Santosh Desai, president, McCann-Erickson.

The recent launch of 'Pleasure', an exclusive 100cc women's scooter from the Hero Honda stable, which is known for its masculine bikes, is a case in point.

“After conducting an in-depth market research we found that specific to the scooter market there were immense opportunities to develop a product customised for women,” says PS Sunder, head of marketing, Hero Honda.

Another initiative from the motorcycle major is the opening up of 22 'Just4her' outlets across 20 towns, exclusively for the scooter.

“We want to offer not only products for women but also services in terms of experiences like emergency services, anytime pick up services, personal accident insurance of up to Rs 1 lakh and a Lady Rider's Club,” adds Mr Sunder.

According to industry estimates, women account for 80% of the total gearless scooter market which is estimated at around 1m units per eyar. TVS Motors, Kinetic and Bajaj also have woman-specific scooters.

Despite tech marketers inerent shy of addressing women singularly, they are surely trying to make a headway into the women bastion with products like slim notebooks, mp3 players and mobile phones. “The notebook market is still in nascent stages, but is growing rapidly.

And seeing the segmentation in the market, the ultra thin notebooks are being positioned towards women as they are one of our major target segments,” says Shuchi Sarkar, marketing head, HP.

Indian wine marketers too are catching up with their global counterparts in capturing the growing number of women wine drinkers. Reveilo, a brand from Vintage Wine, is exclusively targeting women with its ad paying tribute to the emerging Indian woman.

“We are targeting women who are mature and have real knowledge of wines,” says Kiran Patil, director, Vintage Wine. Patil expects about 25-30% of sales to come from women down the line.

That's not all. Even Pernod Ricard thinks women are a big segment. The global MD of Pernod Ricard, Pierre Pringuet told ET that women would drive sales of its forthcoming launches such as wine, Malibu and Mumm champagne.